Date: Wednesday , December 02, 2009
India’s tech knowledge is becoming accepted worldwide. T. Harikumar, who quit his job as an engineer with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to start the Thiruvananthapuram based software firm Travancore Analytics, which is into the development of software in the areas of Imaging Technology and Image Processing, has developed Snakes and Ladders, an Indian board game, for iPhone and iTouch. It has turned out to be one of the most favorite free-downloads at App Store.

Also, it did not take long for the game to become the highest downloaded Apple game worldwide. “The Apple company, after seeing the game, asked us to re-do it as it had the iPhone logo. We removed the logo and Apple released the game on September 27. In a short span of time, the game has achieved more than 250,000 downloads - the highest for an iPhone application developed by any Indian software firm,” says Harikumar. More than 70 percent of downloads have been from Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. At present, the Snake and Ladder application occupies the numero uno position in 12 App Stores worldwide.

The game is so amazingly built that it has fascinated people all around the world. Anyone who has an iPhone or an iTouch can log on to iTunes website and download the game for free. The free version of the game allows the user to be one of the players, while iPhone itself takes the role of the second player.

“We have given it a real feel. When the dice appears on screen, just shake the phone as you would do it while playing on the board game, and the dice shows the number,” says Harikumar. The company currently has 22 employees and is mostly into image technology and processing. Also, the company has under its fold a wide range of software products, which are currently in the development stage.